Help with Dongle query

Wanno

Hello All.
I have a query. During Monday to Thursday I live in a house with wifi already paid. Then at the weekend I come back to mine. I don't have a TV so my evenings are spent on an IPad. I don't have a laptop on any other computer.

I pay the standard monthly broadband costs (£38) but it's never very good rural coverage and I spend quite a bit of time trying to reconnect to the wifi signal downstairs. So for example videos or programmes cut out frequently.

Seeing as my usage is minimal in time, and I don't download that much, it's just, ideally, watching catch up and YouTube, would it be cheaper to have a mobile dongle for when I want to connect to the Internet 3 nights a week?

Does anyone have any experience of doing this or any idea of prices in comparison with my monthly charge?
I'd welcome any feedback on what would work out cheapest.

slink85

depends entirely on how much usage you need.

But I used a mifi device in the wilds of cornwall as my sole connection for a couple of years, firstly on a 15gb plan with three, and then with an all you can eat data plan with three, and more recently on threes PAYG plan with all you can eat data that used to be £15 a month, its now £20 a month, and for the last couple of months with EE 100gb sims that they were giving out.

providing you can get a half decent signal, its a great alternative to fixed line broadband.

but without knowing your usage etc, nobody can really give advice on what sim / netwotk etc to use

your broadband seems expensive though, if you're out of contract, you should be able to half it by swapping providers to one of the many that offer free broadband when you pay for line rental.

NiftyDigits

Is that a joke? £38 for broadband??!! Come on...tell us the truth! Even if it includes your landline rental...it's still too much.
Firstly, you'll need to ascertain if you have a decent 3G/4G signal at your location. If so, mobile broadband Internet will certainly be less expensive than £38 per month.
It won't be a mobile dongle, but a MiFi or suitable Smartphone. A 4G MiFi unit costs as little as a one off price of £29.99, replete with a 15GB data allowance. After that you can continue to pay £20 per month for a 15GB allowance, move up to 25GB for £30 month or choose another option, such as PAYG from £2.50 per GB.

Wanno

Thanks both for your help. £38 is Talk Talk (they took over the contract from Virgin Media) and is land line as wel. I don't have a phone so I just think of paying that amount for broadband. The area has very bad wifi coverage and so generally the village is all on BT or talk talk.

In terms of my usage, I really like the idea of a pay as you go arrangement. There are some weekends during the month I don't come home so it seems silly to pay for something on a monthly charge when I use it so infrequently. I don't know how much data or usage I have at the moment (can I find that out?) but as I'm on the IPad only, the main activities are watching Netflix, browsing, and looking at things like YouTube. I don't think I would need super fast or masses of oomph for that. (Can you tell I'm not very savvy on this area?)
In reality, I'm looking for a bare bones category. The cheapest possible that would still mean enough internet for keeping me amused on a weekend evening.
Any thoughts?

spud17

Watching Netflix and Youtube are two things that will quickly chew through any data allowance, also you will need a reasonable speed for streaming.
As Nifty said, you need find which company has the best coverage for your address.
This should help,
http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/search

Wanno

How interesting.
Basically that site says either Orange or 3. I suppose I need to research either of those to see if they have a pay as you go internet deal?

spud17

Wanno wrote: »

How interesting.
Basically that site says either Orange or 3. I suppose I need to research either of those to see if they have a pay as you go internet deal?

I can't help you there, deals are not my area.
Nifty is the best one to suggest a deal.